Important question about Pokemon

[karnimolly]

Reading "Black Adventures" right now (yeah, I'm horribly late to the party) and finding it utterly adorable and hilarious.

But there's one thing that keeps confusing me to the point where I really don't know what to think anymore :C

What is bad about having Pokemon battles for fun? It was always said that Pokemon are competitive creatures and like

Comments

[ssjumi]

Uuuuhm

[karnimolly]

The thing is that the wild Pokemon aren't minding their own business. It's not like you're attacking them, they keep attacking you o^o° I mean, maybe that's because when I'm running through the grass they feel threatened and want to defend their territory, but if that's the case, there's LOTS of Pokemon sharing one and the same place as a territory >__

[ssjumi]

Like I said, I can only judge from what I've seen in the few anime episodes I've watched, and the stuff that stuck with me was, for example, Ash throwing a pokéball at some Pokémon, that apparantly didn't want to become his "new bff", and then he got told, he has to attack and weaken it first, which he did. And then he was able to catch it :/ Awesome way to make... friends... who love to fight for you... and who have so much freedom of choice there, since they're depending on you keeping care of them, which doesn't really seem an all too healthy basis for any kind of realtionship to me

[karnimolly]

Yes. 10y old school drop-outs leaving their home to battle with and take care of a bunch of animal is not very realistic.
But neither is Yugioh. Neither is Digimon. Not many shonen animes I've ever seen are realistic, or healthy, or a desirable environment to be.

Also you're forgetting one important fact: Pokemon are not animals. Stop calling them that. If it were animals, everything was different. They learn moves that outside of a Pokemon battle don't make any sense. They are MADE for battle. They are frickin Pokemon! ^^°

I know you probably don't mean it that way. I asked for people's opinions, and I can completely understand if you don't like the concept of Pokemon, maybe cuz it's not your thing or maybe because you got the wrong idea of it when you were a kid. But I would appreciate if you stopped talking about Pokemon like everyone playing it was a monster who has fun torturing animals, even though they don't exist, without even knowing enough about Pokemon to ground that stance.

[karnimolly]

I guess you are right, and I really tend to take stuff way too seriously ^^°

But N brought up this topic that it's wrong to fight with your Pokemon and put them into Pokeballs, when before everything about this was a-okay. When I was ten years old, nobody ever told me Pokemon could feel bad when in the Pokeball or when fighting for a badge.

But suddenly, there's that guy being like "Oh noes, that's wrong!" and I just couldn't believe that what I was told for four generations should be incorrect from now on. That for the Pokemon fighting is not only a matter of protecting themselves and their trainer, but that they are proud fighting for you and want to become stronger :C

I feel so stupid for putting so much thought into ma Pokemanz, but somehow this has always been something really important for me ^^°

[winhall]

The thing with pokémon is: they aren't animals. They are creatures that naturally develop moves useless in any environment that is not a battle. So we have to assume that most pokémon come with an equally natural instinct to compete against others in fights. This is shown in the series as well! I recently watched an episode of Best Wishes, the one about Dento's [url=http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Dwebble_%28Pok%C3%A9mon%29]Dwebble[/url]. It had a serious quarrel with three other Dwebbles and they fought using their fighting moves with no trainer who told them to

[karnimolly]

Thank you ;.; I could never have put this into words this well.

The thing is that throughout the game there are always one or two npcs who can tell you what your Pokemon think of you. And not only do your Pokemon like you the more you train them, it's also sometimes mentioned how they see wild Pokemon watching them with jealousy. Jealousy!

[winhall]

You're welcome. ^__^x
I like to argue with the show more than the games, because the latter need a gameplay system that works, not a society that does. You're still right though.
It's also said that pokémon trained by humans are stronger than wild pokémon of the same level (gameplay wise this is because of effort values that wild pokémon don't get; story wise I'd say it's because a trainer can teach a pokémon skills it wouldn't usually learn on its own or that it interacts with pokémon it wouldn't normally meet). For a creture that was born to battle, seeing someone of its species becoming stronger might very well be a reason for jealousy.

Of course, at the same time, there probably are pokémon who would rather live in the wild, either because they prefer to live in (relative) peace or because they just don't want a trainer. And that's fine, too.
Also, there certainly are trainers who abuse their pokémon - but that's not the point. Some people abuse their children, so should be stop having children? Just saying.

[chaosmyth]

I think you're approaching this matter with the wrong mindset XD

[karnimolly]

I vaguely remember Black saying that he was starting to feel guilty about the whole "catching pokemon" business, but I don't think it's a completely bad thing for him to feel.

Yeah, I remember that part, too, as well as Joy saying that he only battles to protect those he loves, and not for fun. This was pretty much the point where I started writing this entry, because I suddenly felt horrible for enjoying battles for fun.
But now that I've talked about that matter a lot, I think I feel more comfortable about it again. There are different opinions, and as the B/W games repeatedly tried to say, that's a good thing.
But I tend to take stuff way too seriously XD

Not to mention that people like White and Cheren probably do have a full set of pokemon and battle to their heart's content; we're just not shown them.It's probably this what confuses the fuck out of me D